I just wrote Pat Goss a note. Here is his reply back to me:
Me: Whenever I go to get my tires rotated, I always receive a piece of paper stating I should return to have the torque of the wheel nuts checked after 25 miles. Is this really necessary? Can the wheel nuts really loosen up significantly on their own?
PG: Thanks for watching! I presume you’re dealing with a dealership or chain store and at some time they had a wheel come off a customer’s car. Once that happens or they hear about it at another shop legal steps in and has the shop institute this notification. Other than a few (now) quite old cars with a specific type of alloy wheel this rarely happens. But due to the nature of dealership and chain store techs (often very low skill levels) wheels may not be properly tightened from the beginning, so they loosen as you drive. But again, it is mostly a way to prevent a customer from having grounds for a lawsuit, “Your Honor we gave them a clearly worded notice and they didn’t follow it so it’s their fault not ours.” Their fault even though we let them leave our shop with improperly tightened wheels.